Crutch spur



March 17, 1953 w PHINNEY 2,631,597

' CRUTCH SPUR Filed Jan. 5, 1950 Patented Mar. 17, 1953 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE CRUTCH SPUR Walter R. Phinney, Versailles, Ind.

Application January 5, 1950, Serial No. 136,915

4 Claims. (01. 135-57) The present invention relates to a crutch spur,and is primarily concerned with the provision of a device, capable ofbeing readily applied to, or removed from, a crutch tip of conventionaldesign, to provide a spurred tip for use on ice, snow, mud, or otherrelatively soft or slippery surfaces. The primary object of theinvention is to provide a device of the character described which shallbe inexpensive in construction and extremely light so that, when it isnot in use, it can be folded to a condition of very small bulk, wherebyit may be carried in a suit coat pocket without bulging the pocket byits volume or dr-ag- I ging the coat by its weight. Thesecharacteristics oflight weight and small bulk, together with the readyapplicability of the device to a crutch, are of prime importance asobjectives of my invention. Further objects of the invention will appearas the description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the above and rel-ated objects, my inventionmay be embodied in the forms illustrated in the accompanying drawings,attention being called to the fact, however, that the drawings areillustrative only, and that change may be made in the specificconstructions illustrated and described, so long as the scope of theappended claims is not violated. Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a crutchtip showing a simple embodiment of my invention operatively appliedthereto;

Fig. 2 is a similar View taken from the lefthand side of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the same structure;

Fig. 4 is an inverted perspective view of the said embodiment of myinvention, shown without the crutch tip, for clarity of illustration;

Fig. 5 is a bottom plan view of a modified form of the invention;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view, similar to Fig. 4, *butshowing the embodiment of Fig. 5;

' Fig. 7 is a perspective view of forming a retaining ring; and

a device 'for Fig. 8 is a view of a retaining ring "forming a plate IBwhich, in the illustrated embodiment, is originally square. The cornersof the plate It are bent or turned, in a common direction, out of thegeneral plane of the plate It, to provide spurs l1, l8, l9 and 20; andpreferably, a triangular portion near the center of the plate is punchedand turned in said common direction to define a central spur 2|.

Two .allochiral ears, indicated generally by the reference numerals 22and 23, are hingedly associated with the plate It. Each of the spurs ll,[8, I 9 and 20 is formed with a perforation 24 near the plane of theplate I 6. The ears 22 and 23 are identical, and only one will bedescribed in detail.

The ear 23 comprises a loop of malleable wire formed to define twoallochiral, opposed legs, each leg terminating at one end in an inturnedportion, such portions being aligned, and the two legs merging, at theopposite end of the ear, in a bight. Thus, the ear 23 comprises aninturned end portion 25, an upstandin portion 26 adapted to span thehead l3 of the crutch tip H, an inwardly curved portion .21 adapted toconform to the reduction of the shank M of the tip II, and a furtherupstanding portion 28. Said ear further comprises an inturned endportion 29 aligned with the portion 25, an upstand ing portion 30corresponding to the portion 26, a curved portion 3! corresponding tothe portion 21, and a further upstanding portion 32 corresponding to theportion ;28, the portions 32 and 2 8 merging in a bight 33. Preferably,the upper port-ion of the car will be turned outwardly, relative to thegeneral plane of the ear, as at 34.

The car :22 is in all respects identical to the car 23, butall-ochirally arranged in opposed relation thereto.

The end portions 25 and .29 of the ear 23 are projected through theperforations 24 in the spurs l9 and 20, respectively; and [a tubularsleeve 36, open at its opposite ends, is positioned between said spursto receive the extremities of the portions =25 and 29 in its oppositeopen ends. If desired, the extremities of said portions may be welded inplace in the sleeve 36.

Similarly, a sleeve 35 is positioned between the spurs li and It toreceive the port-ions .25 and 29 of the ear 3.2, which portions areprojected I through the perforations 24 in said ears I! and Thus, theears 22 and 23 are hinged, for independent movement, about parallelaxes' disposed substantially in the plane of the body of "the plate 16;and said ears may be swung into overlapping parallel relation, in whichthe two ears and the plate l6 lie substantially in a common plane, thusreducing the bulk. of the appliance to a minimum.

To apply the device to a crutch, the hinged ears 22 and 23 are swunginto opposed relation, and the face of the plate remote from the spursis placed in contact with the face [2 of the tip H. Now the ears areswung oppositely upwardly into opposed substantial parallelism, in whicheach ear will straddle, and, to some extent, bite into,

the deformable surface of the tip 1 i. A. ring 43 is slidably mounted onthe crutch shank W. of course, that ring will be slipped onto the crutchshank before the tip I I is mounted in place. As the appliance i5 isassociated with the crutch, the ring 43 will be above the upper ends ofthe ears 22 and 23. Those ears are now squeezed as closely together aspossible, in some instances flexing the upper ends thereof toward thecrutch shank i0, and the ring 53 is dropped over the upper ends of theears and slipped down substantially to the points 3 where it will act tohold the ears in the relation illustrated in, for instance, Fig. 2. Thecurved portions 2? and 35, of course, cooperate with the upwardly-facingsurfaces of the tip H to hold the appliance firmly in place on thecrutch until the ring 43 is intentionally retracted to release the cars22 and 23.

In Figs. 5 and 6, I have shown a somewhat more expensive, and somewhatmore solid, hinging means for the ears 22 and. 23. In that form of theinvention, the plate 37 has associated with its lower face a secondplate 38, which may be formed with a transverse slot 39 through which aspur 30, similar to the spur 2!, may project. The plate 38 is soproportioned and designed as to be received within the boundariesdefined by the corner spurs corresponding to the spurs ll, 18, I9 andand the plate 38 will preferably be spot welded, or otherwise firmlysecured, to the plate 31.

At its opposite ends, the plate 38 is deformed, as at 4! and 42, todefine open ended channels or sockets, each aligned with theperforations in the two adjacent spurs. The inturned ends of the ears 22and 23 are received in the channels formed by the deformations 5! and52, respectively, and are journalled therein to provide a hingedconnection between the ears and the composite plate structure.

While a ring of conventional construction may be used with either formof my invention, I prefer to provide a special retaining ring, asillustrated in Figs. 7 and 8, to accommodate the structure to crutchshanks of varying diameters. Thus, I prefer to provide a length'ofmalleable wire 44, to one end 45 of which is welded or otherwise fixedlysecured an open ended sleeve 46, arranged upon an axis parallel to theaxis of the wire 44. The user will bend the wire 44 to a shape and sizeto conform to the shank I B of his particular crutch, as suggested inFig. 8, making the ring of a diameter sufficient to permit its passageover the ends of the cars 22 and Z3, and threading the end 4? of thewire through the sleeve #5. When the ring 43 has been formed to propercontour and dimensions, the user will bend the extremity of the wire,which projects through the sleeve 45, back upon the outer surface or"said sleeve, in the manner indicated at 48 in Fig. 8, to secure the wireend against withdrawal from said sleeve.

I claim as my invention:

1. A device of the class described comprising a. spurred foot plate, anda pair of cars hinged to said foot plate for free swinging movement,about substantially parallel axes lying substantially in the plane ofsaid plate, into and out of substantially parallel, opposed relation toeach other, each of said ears comprising an integral loop of wire shapedto provide spaced, substantially allochiral legs merging in a bight atthe free end of the ear and having its ends directed toward each otherat the hinged end of the ear, said plate providing bearing meansreceiving said ends, upon the corresponding axis, to establish a journalmounting for such ear upon said plate, said foot plate comprising asubstantially square plate of metal with its four corners turned, in acommon direction, to define spurs projecting in substantiallyperpendicular relation to the general plane of said plate, each of saidspurs being provided with a perforation and said perforations receivingsaid leg ends and comprising said bearing means.

2. A device of the class described comprising a spurred foot plate, anda pair of ears hinged to said foot plate for free swinging movement,about substantially parallel axes lying substantially in the plane ofsaid plate, into and out of substantially perpendicular relation withsaid plate, said foot plate comprising a substantially square plate ofmetal with its four corners turned, in a common direction, intosubstantially perpendicular relation to the general plane of said plate,and a second plate, secured to that surface of said first-named platefacing in said direction, said second plate being provided with portionsspaced from said surface to define hinge pockets in which the innerendsof said ears are confined. V

3. The device of claim 2 in which each of said turned-down cornersisprovided with a perforation, each of said pockets being axiallyaligned with a pair of said perforations.

4. A device of the class described comprising a substantially squaremetal plate with its four corners turned, in a common direction, intosubstantially perpendicular relation to the general plane of said plateto define spurs, each of said spurs being provided with a perforationtherethrough, a pair of ears, each comprising an integral metal loopshaped to provide spaced, substantially allochiral legs merging in abight at the free end of the ear and having its ends directed towardeach other, each end of each loop passing through one of saidperforations, and tubular means positioned between said spurs, eachtubular means having its axis aligned with the perforations in the spursadjacent its opposite ends, and sleeved on said ends of the associatedloop.

WALTER R. PHINNEY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,031,247 Conrad July 2, 19121,615,057 Tyden Jan. 18', 1927 1,674,065 Rogers June 19, 1928 2,401,891Smith June 11, 1946 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 235,472 GreatBritain June 18, 1925

